New East-Side Jordan School District Wants Arbitration

None by Eric Ray

Calls Further Negotiation "Fruitless"

(KCPW News) Contending that further negotiations to split the assets of the Jordan School District would be "fruitless," members of the new East side district say the only thing left to do is take the issue to arbitration:

"We just concluded that we're going backwards, that there's no attempt here to come to a deal," says Steve Newton, chairman of the transition team for the new district. "There's too much animosity, bitterness or whatever going on to be able to make this happen."

Newton says he feels the goal of some members of the West side transition team is to try to get the legislature to hold a special session to stop the district split.

Newton, along with the mayors of several East side cities, say the West side transition team's latest offer to give the East side 25% of the assets is unacceptable, largely because of the condition of the East side's older schools. Transition team member Mike Shelton compared the 48-year-old Midvale Middle School with a new school recently built on the West side.

"One of the major reasons that we have come to this impasse is that our counterparts on the West side want to value this building in the same way, they want to trade it straight across for that Fort Herriman Middle School," says Shelton. "That to us is an unworkable solution. The asset transition team has stated that these buildings should not be looked at as assets, but as liabilities."

Newton says the East side will move to hire it's own arbitration representative, as well as continue updating and performing seismic and condition studies on its buildings.

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